GOOD BOY Interview: Park Bo Gum reveals if he gravitates towards emotional roles, Kim So Hyun and Lee Sang Yi share prep details

Pink Villa

2 days ago

A fight for justice, a fight for the good to prevail over the bad, and a fight from the heart—this upcoming K-drama has all the classic success elements up its sleeves, heading towards a promising start. GOOD BOY brings sports, romance, crime investigation, and more genres into a 16-episode run, featuring fan-favorite actors. Ahead of the premiere, Park Bo Gum, Kim So Hyun, Lee Sang Yi, Heo Sung Tae, and Tae Won Seok joined us for a chat about their new challenging roles.
In GOOD BOY, the said actors come together to form a special police team that aims to tackle crimes by using their learnings as athletes. Embodying a boxer, shooter, fencer, wrestler, and discus thrower, the 5 become an oddly tight-knit bunch, facing challenges personally and professionally. Speaking to us in a round table chat, the cast disclosed their best hands at sports and revealed fun details from their time prepping for the complex roles.
Fresh off his moving role in When Life Gives You Tangerines, we were curious if Park Bo Gum consciously picks projects that show his emotional intelligence, allowing him to cry beautifully on screen. With Yoon Dong Ju, he is set for another intensely charged character, making us wonder how much of it is intentional.
Park Bo Gum, you seem to always gravitate towards very emotionally heavy roles. Are you also very emotional in your real life?
Park Bo Gum: I like to think that I have a full range of emotions, and I also think I tend to have a strong empathy toward other people. So when I am reading a particular script, I always ask myself if I can relate to their emotions. And also when I am in a scene, doing a scene with a partner actor, I think the way you look into each other's eyes and work off of the energy is something that helps in portraying those emotions.
We asked for his response to being named a 'pretty crier.' Ever so humble, Park Bo Gum passed the baton to the lady on his left: 'The actor who looks very pretty when they're crying is actually the person sitting right here next to me (Kim So Hyun),' making the rest of the panel smile in agreement.
Watch the GOOD BOY teaser below for an introduction to their roles:
Which sport would you be confident in winning if you had to compete with each other in real life and what qualities would make you win?
Kim So Hyun: I'm going to go with shooting because although it was my first time learning the sport, it's something that really requires a lot of calmness and very strong mind control. And I think I tend to be quite good at those things.
Park Bo Gum: My character Yoon Dong Ju runs a lot in the series, so I'm gonna go with running or a marathon. I think I would be quite good at that.
Lee Sang Yi: If I can, I would love to take part in a triathlon.
Heo Sung Tae: Honestly, I don't think there's a single sport that I can beat these guys at. I would actually go with ESports, because I spent probably the most amount of time on StarCraft or League of Legends.
Tae Won Seok: I'd definitely be the winner if we were to do a discus throw match or something that requires just a lot of physical strength, including maybe weightlifting.
Furthermore, the cast revealed just how tough it was to assemble the team and fortify themselves as these professional athletes-turned-police officers. Check out their response below.
What was the preparation like, especially physically, to play the roles?
Tae Won Seok: My character is a professional discus thrower, and before taking on this role, I wasn't familiar with this sport. So when we began training, it was really difficult, because not only do you need a lot of physical strength, but what's really important is having flexibility and timing. I practiced it consistently all through eight months because I figured there's no other way to do it.
Heo Sung Tae: I probably trained for the shortest amount of time. It took about three months. I trained with the real-life Korean gold medalist Jung Ji Hun, and there is a specific wrestling position called the stance. So when we were climbing mountains, I would be climbing the mountains in that particular position to strengthen my core muscles.
Lee Sang Yi: I also had to train and learn how to fence. So I actually visited the Korea National Sports University and trained with the fencing majors for about six months.
Kim So Hyun: I usually trained with a rifle, and you really need to have the arm strength and also the core muscle strength. So I really trained a lot, and I put a lot of my efforts into it. I also focused on really portraying the level of confidence, because I thought that being a woman of a small frame for me to be doing a lot of the action sequences with a rifle, I thought it might not come off as convincing, so I thought, I'm going to fill that gap with my level of confidence so I would constantly, sort of almost brainwash myself, 'I'm the best. I'm the best.'
Park Bo Gum: Because my character is a boxer, like everyone here, I also had to train for over six months. I actually trained in real-life boxing with physical contact. And I also worked out a lot because I had to grow my muscle mass. I remember when we were on set and on location, we would work out together, and I actually learned a lot from these guys.
GOOD BOY premieres with episode 1 on May 31 on JTBC, with global streaming available on Prime Video.